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With record political spending in the offing, ABC is selling national prime-time ad time to local stations, which can use the time to sell ads to local candidates. The unorthodox sales move indicates ABC can make more money on prime time with local buys during this busy political season than it could selling the spots to national advertisers. "We're breaking a 60-year tradition," said Disney-ABC Television Group President Anne Sweeney.

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With record political spending in the offing, ABC is selling national prime-time ad time to local stations, which can use the time to sell ads to local candidates. The unorthodox sales move indicates ABC can make more money on prime time with local buys during this busy political season than it could selling the spots to national advertisers. "We're breaking a 60-year tradition," said Disney-ABC Television Group President Anne Sweeney.

Belo is the first outside buyer to acquire ABC's Live Well Network, which launched in 2009 as a subchannel on the network's 10 owned-and-operated stations. Belo, starting Nov. 8, plans to use the Live Well lifestyle content on subchannels in five markets, including Dallas-Fort Worth, New Orleans and Charlotte, N.C.

With record political spending in the offing, ABC is selling national prime-time ad time to local stations, which can use the time to sell ads to local candidates. The unorthodox sales move indicates ABC can make more money on prime time with local buys during this busy political season than it could selling the spots to national advertisers. "We're breaking a 60-year tradition," said Disney-ABC Television Group President Anne Sweeney.

Radio has emerged from the recession, but is still rebuilding its ad business and faces a difficult climate for buying and selling stations, according to a Radio Show panel. "We are in a much better place today than we could ever have possibly imagined ... but we're still in rehab," said New York Times writer Andrew Ross Sorkin, who moderated the session.

The true cost of Comcast's purchase of NBC Universal won't be known until the Federal Communications Commission issues a decision on whether the merged company is allowed to withhold content from online competitors.